What is Nostalgia?

Whether you recognize it or not, we’ve all felt nostalgic for something. But have you ever stopped to wonder why? Or what it really is? If you asked people in the 18th, 19th, and even in the 20th- century, they would have told you that nostalgia was a form of psychosis. If you asked a certain Swiss doctor by the name of Johannes Hoffer, he would have originally told you that it was a “neurological disease of essentially demonic cause.” Yikes, right? But that was back in 1688, and we’ve certainly come a long way since then. 

A simple dictionary definition says it best: nostalgia is a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with a personal association. But I believe that it’s different for everybody. 

For me, nostalgia is as much pain as it is a pleasure. I can hear John Mellencamp singing Hurts So Good in my head when I think about it. It’s the comforting memories of the past coming forward to hug you in the present, mixed with the harsh realization that you’ll never get to relive it. At least not in the same way. 

I think of singing Spice Girl songs in my living room with my best friend. It’s sneaking downstairs early on Saturday mornings to watch cartoons before my family was awake. Nostalgia to me is riding shotgun down a dirt road with my friend for the first time when they got their license, or going to the bar to have my first legal drink. Nostalgia is achingly personal, but yet we all feel it.

Now let’s take it back to the beginning

Johannes Hoffer, who I mentioned earlier, was actually the first person to start chipping away at what we know to be nostalgia. Back in the late 17th- century, he noticed what he considered to be a “strange illness” affecting Swiss mercenaries serving abroad. There were physical symptoms to this illness: including fatigue, irregular heartbeat, indigestion, and even fever. More often than not, the symptoms were so strong that the members had to be discharged and treated. 

Hoffer soon discovered that there was nothing physically wrong with the patients, but that they all had a mental yearning for their mountain homeland. It was actually believed that this condition was something only the Swiss suffered from. Funnily enough, doctors even proposed that the constant ringing of cow bells in the Alps caused trauma to the eardrums and brain. Military commanders even forbid that their soldiers sing songs or play music, worried that they would fall ill to nostalgia.

It wasn’t until people started immigrating to different countries that doctors realized that nostalgia wasn’t just occurring for the Swiss, but for people all over the world! As time and science progressed, nostalgia went from being considered a neurological disease to a mental condition similar to depression. Along the way, he coined the term that we know today, nostalgia. This comes from the Greek word nostos, which means homecoming, and algos, which means pain or longing. If you’ve got some time, check out this quick video that, quite literally, illustrates how nostalgia came to be.

Nostalgia as resilience 

Though nostalgia used to be compared to depression, scientists and health care professionals now know now that it is not. While it is true that people who are sad or suffer from depression are more likely to feel nostalgic, they do not go hand in hand nor are they similar. Correlation does not imply causation, after all. In fact, it’s been found that nostalgia is a crucial part of the continuation of the human species!

When we remember fond, meaningful memories, it boosts our mental well being. If we let ourselves be nostalgic for our childhood, milestone, or time in our life, it increases our feeling of self-worth and belonging. It encourages us to grow, be kinder to one another, and to cope with our ever changing world. It’s been proven that when we experience negative emotional states, we tend to naturally use nostalgia to reduce our stress. An act of self love, if you will. 

Nostalgia is not about being stuck in the past, it’s about remembering that life is worth living. It allows us to pull moments that made us feeling something and it gives us a glimpse of what we might feel again. Nostalgia makes us resilient; it gives us the confidence to keep going, especially when we may not want to. 

Peyton Scott

Peyton is a full-time student, part-time writer, and partial night owl. She falls in love with everything at least once, but especially (and in no particular order): words, furry creatures, empty notebooks, true crime, hikes (and probably you).

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